"Helen (unit) A helen is a humorous unit of measurement based on the concept that Helen of Troy, from the ""Iliad"", had a ""face that launched a thousand ships"". The helen is thus used to measure quantities of beauty in terms of the theoretical action that could be accomplished by the wielder of such beauty. The classic reference to Helen's beauty is Marlowe's lines from the 1592 play ""The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus"", ""Was this the face that launched a thousand ships / And burnt the topless towers of Ilium?"" In the tradition of humorous pseudounits, then, 1 millihelen"
"the sea was rough. When the trumpet signal for the start rang out, Antony's fleet began issuing from the straits and the ships moved into line and remained quiet. Octavian, after a short hesitation, ordered his vessels to steer to the right and pass the enemy's ships. For fear of being surrounded, Antony was forced to give the word to attack. The two fleets met outside the Gulf of Actium (today Preveza) on the morning of 2 September 31 BC. Antony's fleet numbered 500, of which 230 were large war galleys with towers full of armed men. He led these"
"total of 30,000 sailors and marines. under the command of Spanish Admiral Luis de Córdova. They were supported by 86 land guns and 35,000 Spanish and French troops (7,000–8,000 French) on land intending to assault the fortifications once they had been demolished. An 'army' of over 80,000 spectators thronged the adjacent hills over the Spanish border, among them the highest families in the land which included the Comte D'Artois, assembled to see the fortress beaten to powder and 'the British flag trailed in the dust'. The batteries slowly moved forward in the bay; one by one the 138 guns opened"
"early in the historical record (472 BC), and the Greeks appear to have genuinely believed they faced that many ships. Because of the consistency in the ancient sources, some modern historians are inclined to accept 1,207 as the size of the initial Persian fleet; others reject this number, with 1,207 being seen as more of a reference to the combined Greek fleet in the Iliad, and generally claim that the Persians could have launched no more than around 600 warships into the Aegean. However, very few appear to accept that there were this many ships at Salamis: most favour a"
"seven ships, though the majority were able to launch successfully. Herodotus recounts the story that Cynaegirus, brother of the playwright Aeschylus, who was also among the fighters, charged into the sea, grabbed one Persian trireme, and started pulling it towards shore. A member of the crew saw him, cut off his hand, and Cynaegirus died. Herodotus records that 6,400 Persian bodies were counted on the battlefield, and it is unknown how many more perished in the swamps. He also reported that the Athenians lost 192 men and the Plataeans 11. Among the dead were the war archon Callimachus and the"
"through the straits towards the open sea. Octavian had about 250 warships. His fleet was waiting beyond the straits, led by the experienced admiral Agrippa, commanding from the left wing of the fleet, Lucius Arruntius the centre and Marcus Lurius the right. Titus Statilius Taurus commanded Octavian's armies, and he observed the battle from shore to the north of the straits. Antony and Gellius Publicola commanded the right wing of the Antonian fleet, while Marcus Octavius and Marcus Insteius commanded the center, with Cleopatra's squadron positioned behind them. Gaius Sosius launched the initial attack from the left wing of the"
"Rome built a large fleet of about 330 ships, to make the crossing of the Mediterranean with safety. The two consuls for the year, Marcus Atilius Regulus and Lucius Manlius Vulso Longus, were given command of the fleet. But the Carthaginians were not going to let this threat pass unchallenged and launched a fleet of 350 ships to intercept the Romans, commanded by Hanno the Great and Hamilcar the victor of the Battle of Thermae (not to be confused with Hamilcar Barca). By this time, Roman naval tactics had improved. The fleet advanced along the Sicilian coast in battle formation,"
"two forts and an assortment of gunboats of questionable worth. Without reducing the pressure from the north, (Union) President Abraham Lincoln set in motion a combined Army-Navy operation to attack from the south. The Union Army offered 18,000 soldiers, led by the political general Benjamin F. Butler. The Navy contributed a large fraction of its West Gulf Blockading Squadron, which was commanded by Flag Officer David G. Farragut. The squadron was augmented by a semi-autonomous flotilla of mortar schooners and their support vessels under Commander David Dixon Porter. The expedition assembled at Ship Island in the Gulf. Once they were"
"1000), and by the French at Sluys (AD 1340), could be turned by an enemy who attacked on the flank. To meet the shock of ramming and to ram, medieval ships were sometimes ""bearded"", i.e. fortified with iron bands across the bows. From the earliest times of naval warfare boarding was the only means of deciding a naval engagement, but little to nothing is known about the tactics involved. In the first recorded naval battle in history, the battle of the Delta, the forces of Egyptian Pharaoh Ramesses III won a decisive victory over a force made up of the"
"the entrance to the Persian Gulf, in the first conquest of Ormuz. Albuquerque commanded a fleet of six carracks manned by 460 men, and entered Ormuz Bay, being surrounded by 250 warships and a 20.000 men army on land, Albuquerque made his small fleet (but powerful in its artillery) circle like a carrousel, but in a line end-to-end, and destroyed most of the ships that surrounded his squad. He then proceeded to capture Ormuz. While it is well documented that Maarten Tromp first used it in the Action of 18 September 1639, some have disputed this. One of the first"
"150,000-250,000 men). Many Greeks city-states, having had plenty of warning of the forthcoming invasion, formed an anti-Persian league; though as before, other city-states remained neutral or allied with Persia. Although alliances between city-states were commonplace, the scale of this league was a novelty, and the first time that the Greeks had united in such a way to face an external threat. This allowed diversification of the allied armed forces, rather than simply mustering a very large hoplite army. The visionary Athenian politician Themistocles had successfully persuaded his fellow citizens to build a huge fleet in 483/82 BC to combat the"
"of a maritime nation, and the naval blockade of a port can be used to cut off food and supplies in time of war. Battles have been fought on the sea for more than 3,000 years. In about 1210 B.C., Suppiluliuma II, the king of the Hittites, defeated and burned a fleet from Alashiya (modern Cyprus). In the decisive 480 B.C. Battle of Salamis, the Greek general Themistocles trapped the far larger fleet of the Persian king Xerxes in a narrow channel and attacked vigorously, destroying 200 Persian ships for the loss of 40 Greek vessels. At the end of"
"triremes from the Greeks of Thrace and an unspecified number of ships from the Greek islands. Aeschylus, who fought at Salamis, also claims that he faced 1,207 warships there, of which 1,000 were triremes and 207 fast ships. Diodorus and Lysias independently claim there were 1,200 at Doriskos. The number of 1,207 (for the outset only) is also given by Ephorus, while his teacher Isocrates claims there were 1,300 at Doriskos and 1,200 at Salamis. Ctesias gives another number, 1,000 ships, while Plato, speaking in general terms refers to 1,000 ships and more. These numbers are (by ancient standards) consistent,"
"masterpiece of planning""- coordinating and commanding a fleet of almost 7,000 vessels to delivering over 160,000 men onto the beaches of Normandy on D-Day alone, with over 875,000 disembarked by the end of June. He defused a potential conflict between Prime Minister Winston Churchill and the British Sovereign, King George VI, when Churchill informed the King that he intended to observe the D-Day landings from aboard , a cruiser assigned to bombardment duties for the operation. The King, himself a seasoned sailor and a veteran of the Battle of Jutland in the First World War, likewise announced that he would"
"of five batteries would make up a total of 150 guns. The Spanish enthusiastically received the proposal and D'Arcon sailed close to shore under enemy fire in a skiff to get more accurate calculations and intelligence. On 13 September 1782 the Bourbon allies launched their great attack; 5,260 fighting men both French and Spanish aboard ten of the newly engineered 'floating batteries' with 138 to 212 heavy guns with Don Buenaventura Moreno in charge. Outside in support were the combined Spanish and French fleet which consisted of 49 ships of the line, 40 Spanish gunboats and 20 bomb-vessels, with a"
"Naumachia The naumachia (in Latin ""naumachia"", from the Ancient Greek ναυμαχία/""naumachía"", literally ""naval combat"") in the Ancient Roman world referred to both the staging of naval battles as mass entertainment, and the basin or building in which this took place. The first known ""naumachia"" was given by Julius Caesar in Rome in 46 BC on occasion of his quadruple triumph. After having a basin dug near the Tiber, capable of holding actual biremes, triremes and quinqueremes, he made 2000 combatants and 4000 rowers, all prisoners of war, fight. In 2 BC on the occasion of the inauguration of the Temple"
"commanded a large fleet of ships. His first voyage is estimated to have had over 300 total ships and nearly 28,000 men. Some of the ships were large treasure ships estimated to be over 400 feet long and 170 feet wide. That's longer than a football field! They had ships to carry treasure, ships to carry horses and troops, and even special ships to carry fresh water. Certainly the civilizations that Zheng He visited were amazed at the power and strength of the Chinese Empire when this fleet arrived. Both shows include video projection mapping, laser beams and laser graphic"
"as general by the emperor in hope he would balance the growing influence of the Alan ""Magister militum"" Aspar who sought to control Leo; however, Basiliscus sought the friendship of Aspar to further his own designs on the throne, and Aspar ""repeatedly urged upon Basiliscus that he should spare the Vandals and Genseric"". Ancient and modern historians provided different estimates for the number of ships and troops commanded by Basiliscus, as well as for the expenses of the expedition, although both were enormous sums. According to the text of Priscus, 100,000 ships were assembled, although modern scholars have emended this"
"Zeelandic Vice-Admiral Johan Evertsen who launched his fireships against them: most Portuguese ships were taken or destroyed, leaving according to some reports 15,200 dead and 1,800 prisoner. The number of dead is today considered as greatly exaggerated; for example, it does not take into account that a third of the troops had already reached Flanders. De Oquendo managed to escape in the fog with about ten ships, most of them Dunkirkers, and reach Dunkirk. Nine of the ships driven ashore during the battle could be later refloated and also reached Dunkirk. According to the Spanish naval historian Cesáreo Fernández Duro,"
"Dionysius turning the island of Ortygia (where the original city of Syracuse stood) into a fortress and encompassing the Epipolae Plateau by massive walls. He hired workmen to create new weapons (such as the Catapult), and new ships (such as the Quinquereme). In 398 BC, Dionysius attacked the Phoenician city of Motya with an army of 80,000 infantry and 3,000 cavalry, along with a fleet of 200 warships and 500 transports carrying his supplies and war machines. This ignited the first of four wars he was to lead against Carthage. The attack of Dionysius caused the Sicilian Greeks and Sikans"
"than fifty thousand medimni, nor any one less than three thousand. And in all the vessels together there were thirty thousand sailors, Egyptians and Ionians for the most part, and Cilicians, and one commander was appointed over all the ships, Calonymus of Alexandria. And they had also ships of war prepared as for sea-fighting, to the number of ninety-two, and they were single-banked ships covered by decks, in order that the men rowing them might if possible not be exposed to the bolts of the enemy. Such boats are called ""dromones"" by those of the present time; for they are"
"Continental Navy was established by General George Washington in his role as Commander in Chief of all Continental Forces, before Esek Hopkins was named Commodore of the Navy. The Navy began with seven ships, often called ""Washington Cruisers"", that flew the ""Liberty Tree Flag"", depicting a green pine tree with the motto ""Appeal to Heaven"". This is according to the October 20, 1775 letter of Washington's aide Colonel Joseph Reed, which is stored in the Library of Congress. Those first ships were used to intercept incoming British ships carrying war supplies to the British troops in the colonies both to"
"detail, and the expedition was ready to set sail. The great fleet consisted of 12 ships of the line, 50 frigates, 7 galleys and 26 galiots, 4 brigs, 97 xebecs, several gunboats and bomb vessels, approximately 109 transport ships, and several minor ships and vessels of different classes, in total, the ships of the fleet numbered about 500–600, and the supreme commander of the fleet was the veteran naval officer Don Francisco Javier Cornejo. The fleet caused great astonishment in all Europe, and as a writer of that time, said: The army was led by the Duke of Montemar. The"
"of the kingdom than before."" With the desire for revenge, Cyrus gathered a large army and pretended to prepare an expedition against the Pisidians, a tribe based in the Taurus mountains. In the spring of 401 BC, Cyrus united all his forces into an army, which now included Xenophon's ""Ten Thousand"", and advanced from Sardis without announcing the object of his expedition. By dexterous management and promises of large rewards, he overcame the misgivings of the Greek troops over the length and danger of the war. A Spartan fleet of 35 triremes sent to Cilicia opened the passes of the"
"overthrown by the first Tyrant of Sparta, Lycurgus, twenty years earlier, and 1,500 Macedonians with 400 Thessalian cavalry sent by Philip. News also reached the allies that several fleets had arrived off the Laconian shore: a Roman fleet under Lucius Quinctius with forty ships; a Rhodian fleet with eighteen ships, led by Sosilas, hoping that the defeat of Nabis would stop the pirates that plagued their ships; and a Pergamene fleet of forty ships under King Eumenes II of Pergamum, who hoped to gain more favor with Rome and Roman support if Antiochus invaded. Nabis drafted 10,000 citizens into his"
"men being ferried onto the ships and barricades erected, denouncing the viziers intention to resist. The Portuguese were surrounded by some 50 armed merchant-ships on the land side and somewhere between 120 to 200 light oarcraft on the sea side. Albuquerque made no attempts to escape this encirclement; he would instead take advantage of the excessive number of enemy vessels specifically to allow the artillery to fire for greater effect. By about 9 a.m. of the following day Albuquerque's flagship ""Cirne"" opened fire, and the rest of the fleet followed suit. Volleys were exchanged between the Hormuzi fleet and the"
"the Greeks of Thrace and nearby islands as reinforcements. Aeschylus, who fought at Salamis, also claims that he faced 1,207 warships there, of which 207 were ""fast ships"". Diodorus and Lysias independently claim there were 1,200 ships in the Persian fleet assembled at Doriskos in the spring of 480 BC. The number of 1,207 (for the outset only) is also given by Ephorus, while his teacher Isocrates claims there were 1,300 at Doriskos and 1,200 at Salamis. Ctesias gives another number, 1,000 ships, while Plato, speaking in general terms refers to 1,000 ships and more. The number 1,207 appears very"
"and prepared for battle; he directed his line toward the bay's mouth, assisted by winds from the north-northeast. De Grasse had detached a few of his ships to blockade the York and James Rivers farther up the bay, and many of the ships at anchor were missing officers, men, and boats when the British fleet was sighted. He faced the difficult proposition of organizing a line of battle while sailing against an incoming tide, with winds and land features that would require him to do so on a tack opposite that of the British fleet. At 11:30 am, 24 ships"
"Sixteen destroyers formed a bent line screen ahead of two columns of merchant ships. The port column was led by the cruiser ""Kenya"", followed by ""Ajax"", ""Clan MacDonald"", ""Imperial Star"", ""Rowallan Castle"" and ""City of Calcutta"". The starboard column was led by the cruiser ""Edinburgh"" followed by ""Clan Ferguson"", , HMS ""Breconshire"" and ""City of Lincoln"". ""Rodney"" took position behind the port wing of the screen followed by ""Prince of Wales"". ""Nelson"" took position behind the starboard wing of the screen followed by ""Ark Royal"" in formation with the anti-aircraft cruisers ""Euryalus"" and ""Hermione"". The cruiser ""Sheffield"" took position astern"
"with over ten thousand ships and one hundred thousand soldiers. The purpose of the operation was to punish the Vandal king Geiseric for the sacking of Rome in 455, in which the former capital of the Western Roman Empire was overwhelmed, and the Empress Licinia Eudoxia (widow of Emperor Valentinian III) and her daughters were taken as hostages. The plan was concerted between Eastern Emperor Leo, Western Emperor Anthemius, and General Marcellinus, who enjoyed independence in Illyricum. Basiliscus was ordered to sail directly to Carthage, while Marcellinus attacked and took Sardinia, and a third army, commanded by Heraclius of Edessa,"
"Vitgeft proceeded to lead his six battleships, four cruisers, and 14 torpedo boat destroyers into the Yellow Sea in the early morning of 10 August 1904. Waiting for him was Admiral Tōgō and his fleet of four battleships, 10 cruisers, and 18 torpedo boat destroyers. At approximately 12:15, the battleship fleets obtained visual contact with each other, and at 13:00 with Tōgō crossing Vitgeft's ""T"", they commenced main battery fire at a range of about eight miles, the longest ever conducted up to that time. For about thirty minutes the battleships pounded one another until they had closed to less"
"Battle of Sluys The Battle of Sluys (; ), also called the Battle of l'Ecluse, was a naval battle fought on 24 June 1340 between England and France, in the roadstead of the port of Sluis (French ""Écluse""), on a since silted up inlet between Zeeland and West Flanders. The English fleet of 120–150 ships was led by Edward III of England and the French of 230 by the Breton knight Hugues Quiéret, Admiral of France, and Nicolas Béhuchet, Constable of France. It was one of the opening engagements of the Hundred Years' War. Edward sailed from the Orwell on"
"the Punic navy. The Carthaginian Senate had offered the command of the coming expedition to Hannibal Mago (the “Greek Hater”), who at first refused the position pleading advanced age. When his kinsman Himilco was appointed as his deputy, Hannibal set about making preparations in earnest. Aside from Carthaginian citizens, troops were levied from Africa, Spain and Italy, so an army of 120,000 men (probably exaggerated; around 60,000 is closer to the truth) and a fleet of 120 triremes and 1,000 transports were made ready by the Spring of 406 BC. Carthage doubled the numbers of triremes (only 60 triremes had"